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Addressing the Sponsor Exemption Debate

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Once again, a celebrity has been given a sponsor exemption to play in a professional golf event. Last weekend, Tony Romo, former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, played on the PGA TOUR in the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship on a sponsor exemption. Last August, Steph Curry, guard for the Golden State Warriors, did the same in the Ellie Mae Classic and country music star, Jake Owen, will compete in the Nashville Open in May, both on the Web.com Tour.

Former NFL Player and amateur Tony Romo lines up a putt on the…

Former NFL Player and amateur Tony Romo lines up a putt on the seventh green during round two of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship on March 23, 2018 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Both Romo and Curry missed the cut, and chances are Owen will do the same, which only fuels the fire on the debate over whether they should be playing or not.

The argument against it is that they’re taking a spot away from someone who is actually trying to make a living playing the game of golf; an up-and-coming mini tour guy. Their spot could’ve gone to someone struggling to survive on a mini tour. If that player performed well, it could’ve changed his career and life. Therefore, one may say, sponsor exemptions have gotten out of hand and need to be reined in.

On the surface, this perspective is an easy one to support. Many of us golfers, at one point or another, have entertained the thought of playing the game we love professionally.

It’s a dream of ours, no matter how unlikely. We see ourselves in this nameless, faceless player who is fighting for their life to see their dream become a reality.

Whoever that guy is, he didn’t get his shot because an entitled celebrity was picked based on name rather than ability, we think. The emotion involved in this debate is understandable. We all want to feel like we received a fair shot in life to succeed. The problem is, this belief is based upon incorrect assumptions.

It’s a Common Practice

First of all, I’ll admit it, sponsor exemptions are kind of weird. When we hear about them, many of us don’t fully understand what they are or how they work. As we look around at other professional sports league, we don’t immediately see anyone else employing such a strategy to include athletes in their game.

People have even made the point that you don’t see celebrities or athletes from other sports lacing up cleats for an NFL roster. That’s true, but this analogy breaks down fairly quickly.

Tim Tebow and Russell Wilson have essentially earned “sponsor exemptions” to play minor league baseball for the New York Mets and New York Yankees, respectively. Maybe you believe that one, or both, of these guys will one day play on an MLB roster, but a quick glance at their professional stats show that neither one of them has ever hit over .231 in single-A ball, where the average age of a player is significantly younger than them.

A Gators fan is all smiles as he captures a selfie with Tim Tebow of…

A Gators fan is all smiles as he captures a selfie with Tim Tebow of the Mets before the Florida State League game between the St. Lucie Mets and the Tampa Yankees on August 13 at Steinbrenner Field… Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

I’d argue that they weren’t signed to a roster, primarily, with the belief that they would one day make the Majors. Their team probably thought there was a chance they’d get lucky and catch lightning in a bottle, but that was a long shot (just like Romo, Curry, or Owen making the cut, finishing top 10, or winning the event).

In the end, their contracts may not be called sponsor exemptions, but they exist for the same purpose; to stir up interest and make more money.

It’s Also a Business Move

Ultimately, that’s why professional sports leagues exist. Like it or not, they’re businesses, not charities, who are in it to make money. (Even though the PGA TOUR technically operates under a tax exempt non-profit status, but that’s an article for another day.) The point is, the leagues don’t exist to give playing opportunities to its members; they desire to be financially successful and a golf tournament helps the Tour do that.

Each tournament has a sponsor who makes the event possible. Without them, the event likely would not exist. The sponsors are given eight exemptions (at least 2 have to be PGA TOUR members and at least 2 must be top finishers from last year’s Web.com Tour) as a tool to help make their event more successful. The remaining spots are ones that a sponsor can use to bring in a player who will increase interest, like Tony Romo, to make them more money and the sponsorship worthwhile. As a result, this increased interest also grows the game overall.

It Helps Grow the Game

Now, I’ve also heard the argument that Tony Romo doesn’t grow the game, Tiger Woods does.

I understand the point behind this, but it’s a gross oversimplification. “Growing the game” isn’t that black and white. Growth occurs on a continuum.

Yes, Tiger Woods definitely grows the game more than Tony Romo, but that doesn’t mean Romo doesn’t at all. If there’s just one non-golfer-Dallas-Cowboy-fan that tunes in to see his former QB play golf on the PGA TOUR, then Romo has grown the game to some degree.

Sponsor exemption can’t be given out to just anyone though; Charles Barkley won’t be playing on the PGA TOUR anytime soon. That’s because the exempt player must have a handicap of 0 or less.

Make no mistake about it, Tony Romo is no slouch. He currently has a +0.3 handicap index. Curry and Owen aren’t as skilled, but they’ve got game too. Guys who are skilled both inside and outside the game bring with them a new audience that can help spread the Tour’s reach.

A Word About Field Selection

Finally, and perhaps most significantly, it’s important to understand that the PGA uses a system called “Priority Ranking” to select the field for each tournament. This is a list of 37 different ways (33 on Web.com Tour) that a person can qualify for PGA TOUR exempt status; one of those ways is through the sponsor exemption. Every player is aware of this process.

This past weekend was a little unusual because there were two PGA events, the WGC Dell Match-Play Championship and the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, instead of just one. So, both fields had to be filled with players from the Priority Ranking list. The WGC filled with the first 64 players, and the Corales filled their field with the rest.

If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the PGA’s Priority Ranking, the final name explicitly listed is Robert Gamez. He also competed in the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Meaning, everyone who qualified for a PGA TOUR event in 2018 had a fair shot to play in the tournament. The tournament committee was, basically, scraping the bottom of the barrel to fill this field.

Fans walk along the course in the rain during the final round of the…

Fans walk along the course in the rain during the final round of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship on March 25, 2018 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Now, with the exception of a few tournaments, a full field on the PGA TOUR is 156 players, yet the Corales Puntacana only hosted a field of 132 players. So, technically, there were still 24 open spots available in the tournament that the committee chose not to fill, probably because they didn’t find anyone worthy of a spot.

The reason a fringe-level mini tour pro didn’t get an opportunity to play in this tournament was not because Tony Romo took his spot. It was simply because the Tour didn’t find anyone deserving enough to compete.

Even in the case of Steph Curry and the Ellie Mae Classic, where they did have a full field of 156 players, he still didn’t take anyone’s spot. Remember, there are 32 other ways for a player to qualify for that event. The opportunities are there for a player who can score.

Just Enjoy it

To sum it all up, sponsor exemptions aren’t all that strange. In fact, it’s a practice in other professional sports leagues to reach more, new fans.

They’re good for golf and sports in general because they make it possible for the sport we love to thrive a little bit more. The tours have made the qualification process very clear and provide plenty of avenues for up-and-coming players to compete. So, next time a skilled celebrity gets an invite to a professional event, sit back, relax, and enjoy, knowing that the game benefits and everyone had a fair shot.


Cover Image via Instagram

Eric Peyton has been playing and teaching the game professionally at golf courses all over the Midwest since 2006. Previously, he was a pro at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, KS, a top 30 golf course in the United States. He now owns and operates his own golf business, Eric Peyton Golf, out of Des Moines, IA, where his passion is for helping people love the game.

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Steve S
Steve S
5 years ago

You are wrong about Wilson and Tebow. Wilson was drafted by the Rockies and played single A ball for them, then was redrafted by the Rangers and attended their spring training. He was later traded to the Yankees, but everyone knew he wasn’t going to really play baseball, but he was a legit member of their roster. Tebow had an open tryout where the Mets saw enough raw talent to take him on. He is now in AA ball and as of 7/17 he is hitting .272 and turning into a real prospect. I would hardly call these two “exemptions”… Read more »

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